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Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (3889)	12/12/2001 8:42:28 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12231

NYT -- Melting Glaciers in Antarctica Are Raising Oceans, Experts Say. December 11, 2001 Melting Glaciers in Antarctica Are Raising Oceans, Experts Say By KENNETH CHANG SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 10 — Antarctica appears to be melting and contributing to the slow rise in the oceans, scientists reported to their colleagues here today. Using two sets of radar data from the European Remote Sensing Satellite, two scientists said they had found that about 36 cubic miles of ice had melted from glaciers in West Antarctica over the past decade. That is enough water to raise sea levels worldwide by about one-sixtieth of an inch, they said. "These glaciers are thinning rapidly," said one of the scientists, Dr. Eric Rignot from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The conclusions were presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The findings counter results of an earlier study, drawing on ground- based observations, that concluded that Antarctica was gaining in mass, with the snow falling at the interior. Dr. Rignot said a satellite instrument designed to detect deformations in the ground shape found no areas gaining in mass. But, he said, the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers in West Antarctica, the two largest on the continent, are noticeably thinning. The rest of Antarctica appears to be stable, he said. Ocean levels have been rising at a rate of about eight inches a century. Half of that is attributable to the fact that water expands as temperatures rise; 20 percent appears to be water running down mountain glaciers. The remaining 30 percent is a mystery, but the new data suggests it is coming from Antarctica. Using a second instrument on the satellite, one that measures altitude, Dr. Andrew Shepherd, a research fellow at the Center for Polar Observation and Modeling at University College London, came to similar conclusions. A smaller, neighboring glacier, the Smith glacier, is losing mass even more quickly, he said. No obvious explanation exists for the melting. The rise in global temperatures — about one degree Fahrenheit over the last century — would have negligible effect in the frigid climes of Antarctica, scientists say. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

To: Neeka who wrote (3889)	12/12/2001 8:56:07 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Respond to of 12231

NYT -- Drastic Shifts in Climate Are Likely, Experts Warn. December 12, 2001 Drastic Shifts in Climate Are Likely, Experts Warn By KENNETH CHANG The vast reshaping of the environment by modern civilization raises the chances of sudden and drastic upheavals in the climate, a panel of experts warns. In a report released yesterday in Washington by the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, a panel of 11 scientists examined the possibility of abrupt climate change, in which small events can bring on rapid and great consequences. Dr. Richard B. Alley, a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University and chairman of the committee, compared abrupt climate change to a light switch, while gradual climate — what most climatologists study — is like a light dimmer. Press upward on a dimmer, and the light brightens a little. Press more, and the light brightens more. With a switch, press lightly and nothing happens. Press hard enough, and the light abruptly turns on. "What the research shows is that there are switches as well as dimmers in Earth's system," Dr. Alley said. The scientists do not foresee any imminent changes, and the report advises that the public "not be fatalistic about the threats." The panel recommends further research to understand the mechanisms that can cause the sudden changes. Most of the report focuses on abrupt changes that occurred naturally, long before humans dominated the landscape. One prominent example is a period 12,800 years ago known as the Younger Dryas cold interval. The climate had almost completely recovered from the last ice age, but then average temperatures dropped 10 degrees or more and remained cold for more than 1,000 years. Then the Earth abruptly warmed again, perhaps 15 degrees in a decade. By contrast, the warming of the Earth in the last century was 1 degree. Although the sudden shifts occur naturally, the changes in the environment, including flooding the atmosphere with carbon dioxide or cutting swaths of rain forests, could act as a final push, the scientists said. "The harder you push, the more likely you are to cross a threshold," Dr. Alley said. "We are likely to be surprised." Most climate studies like those that look at global warming and its links to carbon dioxide emissions have examined changes that emerge gradually and steadily over decades or centuries. At the meeting of the American Geophysical Union yesterday in San Francisco, scientists presented computer simulations indicating that a rise in carbon dioxide levels would lengthen the time that a low-pressure weather system hovered over the North Pole and a high-pressure air mass over the Atlantic. That pattern tends to blow in warm air from the Atlantic into Europe, potentially leading to wetter and warmer winters over the coming decades. But that gradual shift to warmer and wetter winters may also cause an abrupt climate change. Some climate models predict that the increased rainfall may weaken, or perhaps even stop, the Atlantic currents that carry warm water northward from the tropics and may plunge Europe into a new ice age. Other models predict no effects. The Younger Dryas may have been caused by the turning off of the northward currents and may have ended when the currents suddenly resumed. "It leaves open the question of could we be pushing the variability one way or another," said Dr. John M. Wallace, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington and another panel member. "There are a lot of ifs." The report also reviews research on regional temporary shifts like the 1930's Dust Bowl drought. Although the drought seems to have occurred naturally, soil erosion caused by farming may have prolonged it. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

To: Neeka who wrote (3889)	12/14/2001 1:08:26 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Respond to of 12231

161 year old cigar factory shuts down. December 13, 2001 W. Va. Cigar Factory Shuts Down By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 3:52 p.m. ET The oldest cigar maker in America has had an impressive list of customers over the past 161 years. Daniel Webster, Annie Oakley, P.T. Barnum all smoked West Virginia's Marsh Wheeling Stogies. The long, thin cigars that Miflin Marsh first rolled at his Wheeling home in 1840 have even made their way into the movies, including ``How the West Was Won'' and ``The Green Mile.'' The brand lives on. But after Friday, Marsh Wheeling Stogies will no longer come from West Virginia. They will be made in Frankfort, Ind. Faced with declining sales, rising taxes and fear of lawsuits, Marsh Wheeling is closing the historic plant that once made Wheeling the heart of an industry. West Virginia is one of the few states where courts have recognized the right of healthy smokers to sue tobacco companies for medical screening. A landmark class-action suit against the nation's largest cigarette makers was rejected by a jury last month, but Marsh Wheeling lawyer Jim Gardill said shareholders consider the law too much of a liability. ``In this particular case, it played a role,'' he said Thursday. ``You can get damages even though you've not been injured. That's a peculiar issue to explain to management in other states. It's just bizarre.'' John Berger & Son Co. of Cincinnati bought Marsh in 1988. It is transferring the product line to Marsh's sister company, National Cigar Corp. Forty people are out of a job and Wheeling is losing a piece of itself. ``It's part of our history, part of our tradition,'' local historian Bill Carney said. ``It's very sad.'' Hydie Friend, acting executive director of the Wheeling National Heritage Area Corp., would like to keep the neon sign atop the factory regardless of what happens to the warehouse-style building with solid oak floors, high ceilings, exposed steel beams and massive wooden joists. The sign is visible to all who drive through the city on Interstate 70, a stretch of highway that runs between Pennsylvania and Ohio. The shareholders have not decided what to do with the sign, but Gardill said the factory will probably be sold, perhaps to be converted into stores. At a send-off luncheon Wednesday, retirees joined remaining workers. The atmosphere was subdued. ``As cigar smokers die, principally of old age, there are not a lot of younger cigar smokers to replace them,'' Gardill said. Marsh's low-priced stogie was aimed at the ordinary, middle-income smoker. The name ``stogie'' is derived from conestoga, the kind of wagon that frontier families used during the trek West. Miflin Marsh sold the first stogies from a basket hooked on his arm, handing them out on steamboats that once worked the Ohio River and docked at Wheeling's wharf. By the late 1800s, the cigars were so popular and cheap that taverns placed them on the counter like pretzels or toothpicks, free of charge. ^------ On the Net: Marsh Wheeling Stogies: marshwheeling.com National Cigar Corp: broadleafcigars.com Wheeling Convention & Visitors Bureau: wheelingcvb.com Copyright 2001 The Associated Press